Travis Head\u2019s exclusion was the biggest shock, but Ashton Agar\u2019s exclusion from the first Test in India bodes ill for the left arm off spinner who captured Australia\u2019s imagination with the bat on his Ashes debut all those years ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
All of Agar\u2019s cricket life was headed for this moment and this pitch.<\/p>\n
Never was a wicket or a series better suited for a left arm orthodox. India\u2019s cunning curators had designed a track that Agar could have only dreamt of.<\/a><\/p>\n If you can\u2019t bowl here where can you bowl?<\/p>\n The selectors included him over Scott Boland in Sydney and while his performance there was sub par, the SCG is not the tailor made red clay of Nagpur.<\/p>\n Yes, Todd Murphy is rated as the second best spinner in the country, but even the third, fourth or fifth best left armer was sure to profit on this pitch.<\/p>\n Did selectors lose faith in Agar or did Agar lose faith in himself?<\/p>\n Perhaps it was a bit of both. <\/p>\n An intelligent man and a deep thinker, he never looked comfortable in the nets during preparation for the match. <\/p>\n Picked ahead of Nathan Lyon at Trent Bridge for his debut as a teenager, he was dropped after going wicketless in the second Test of that Ashes series, brought back for a pair of matches in Bangladesh in 2017 before being granted what looked like match practice in Sydney.<\/p>\n Should Murphy not work out he may be given another chance in the remaining three matches of this series, but as it stands it looks as if his only role on this tour is to carry drinks and provide net practice for his teammates.<\/p>\n Agar has been a regular member of the Australian ODI squad over the journey and as a consequence has missed a lot of first class cricket over the journey.<\/p>\n In November this year he was in the WACA nets having \u201ca nice long bowl\u201d with the red ball.<\/p>\n \u201cI still have a desire to play red-ball cricket,\u201d he was compelled to say.<\/p>\n The great problem Australian cricket faces with spin bowlers if finding exposure to red ball cricket. Four day Sheffield Shield games on wickets designed to get results make it difficult to create any depth in the slow bowling ranks.<\/p>\n Murphy, like Agar a decade before, is being thrown in at the deep end in the hope that he can swim. Or at least float. <\/p>\n The off spinner from Echuca has only played five Shield games.<\/p>\n Even Shane Warne had played seven before his debut in 1991.<\/p>\n Murphy is a phenomenal talent who impresses all who see him, he made his Australia A debut after two games.<\/p>\n He had a long meeting with captain Pat Cummins, the coaches and Nathan Lyon on the eve of the match, New Zealand legend and spin bowling coach Daniel Vettori is on hand to guide him in his preparation.<\/p>\n Vettori, made his debut after just two first class games for his country.<\/p>\n Both players began life as medium pacers. Vettori was convinced to give up seam bowling by his college head master and was just 18 when the new skill gave him entree to the national team.<\/p>\n Murphy was bowling medium pace at a rep trial in Shepparton when a chance encounter with former Victorian spinner Craig Howard changed the course of his life.<\/p>\n Howard, who was there to watch his son and had no involvement with the squad, saw the aspiring batsman sending down some off spin.<\/p>\n Murphy was bowling slow because he\u2019d grown tired of his stock medium pace deliveries. <\/p>\n Howard mentioned to the coaches that he thought the teen was the best off spinner they had and changed the course of his life.<\/p>\n Murphy moved to Bendigo to play for Sandhurst where he was coached by Howard who lives in the Victorian city.<\/p>\n Australia\u2019s decision to go with two off spinners is extraordinary but Ashton Agar has struggled with his rhythm since arriving in India.<\/p>\n The last time an Australian side played two off spinners was in 1988 when Peter Taylor and Tim May played across the border from India in Karachi.<\/p>\n Originally published as India v Australia: Follow all the action from the first Test in Nagpur<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n